Keelah se'lai
by Heatseeker96
Summary: While the Normandy SR1 is doing scans in Geth space, Commander Shepard wants to show something one of his engineers and friends, Tali'Zorah. Apparently the ship is making a small detour, to a location she thought she'd never see. (one-shot) Credits for the cover image in author's note at the bottom.


Tali was working in engineering. She helped some of the engineers with the customary maintenance work on some of the Normandy's subsystems. It wasn't the most exiting job on the ship, but it kept the engineers busy when they were doing scans in Geth space. They didn't want to risk tampering with anything that could have an impact on the engines or the stealth drive and endanger the entire ship and her crew.

However, Tali wasn't as bored as the rest of her colleagues. Yesterday, Shepard had given her what was probably going to be the best pilgrimage gift for the fleet in decades: data that could give the Quarians an edge over the Geth. She still couldn't believe that he gave it to her when she just asked for it, without being able to give anything in return. He could get arrested for giving her that secret Alliance data, but he just gave it to her. It seemed like some kind of a dream.

A beep coming from her omni-tool snapped her out of her thoughts. It was an incoming call, apparently from Shepard. After she pressed the button to accept it, a small screen came up showing his face.

"Tali, I noticed your shift is almost over. Would you mind coming over to the crew deck when you're done? I want to show you something," he said.

"Sure," she replied hesitantly. "Let me finish this and I'll be right there."

"Thanks, see you soon."

After the call was ended, her omni-tool's light dimmed again. She began remounting the pipe she had cleaned to the filtration system, when she started wondering about the call. _What would he possibly want to show me? We're in the middle of a stealth reconnaissance mission and he already gave me everything I could possibly ask for._ She kept thinking about possible explanations, but couldn't find any. She curiously walked towards the elevator after her work was done, to get to their meeting point.

* * *

She walked out of the slow elevator and turned towards the eating area. There, she found her captain sitting at one of the tables looking over a datapad. He glanced up when he heard her approaching.

"Ah, Tali. Thanks for coming, I'm glad you got here soon."

"You said you wanted to show me something Shepard?" she asked with her hands clasped together at her waist, slightly nervous because of all the mystery.

"Yes, follow me," he said while gesturing towards the small corridor towards the crew's quarters and the two observation rooms in front of the ship.

She walked after him with a puzzled look on her hidden face. She had absolutely no idea what was going to happen now. It didn't take long for both of them to arrive in the port-side observation room. Such rooms were usually small on military vessels and the Normandy was no exception. There was barely enough room for five people in there, but there was ample space for the young Quarian and her captain.

Suddenly, Joker's voice came over the comm: "To all stations, prepare for relay jump." After the notification, the blue glow disappeared from the window, which meant that they had dropped out of FTL.

Shepard spoke up: "Yesterday, I had a conversation with Admiral Hackett about the Geth data I gave you. It's the reason that we're doing these scans to monitor Geth activity."

Tali jumped a little in shock when she heard that. "You didn't get into trouble for giving me a copy, did you?"

He shook his head. "No, I didn't mention that. I said that I was worried about finding so many Geth away from Saren. After deliberating about it for a while, we came to the conclusion that we should know the full extent of the threat. He asked me to do a couple of quick scans in the Hades Nexus, Far Rim, Caleston Rift and Phoenix Massing while we're on our way to Noveria. It wasn't a large diversion for what could be important intel."

The window flashed in its typical way to indicate that they were passing through a relay. It blackened out shortly afterwards, before returning to its typical blue glow caused by FTL travel.

She turned her head to Shepard. "That still doesn't explain why you wanted to see me."

He smiled. "I figured that why we were there, a small detour for one of my best friends wouldn't hurt." He turned his head towards the window. "The relay we just passed through is the one connected to the Perseus Veil."

"Keelah Shepard, do you mean that…"

"Yes Tali, we're headed to Rannoch."

_Rannoch, _she thought. _The home of my ancestors that no Quarian has seen in three centuries. We're headed there? That can't be true._

Shepard continued. "You once said that none of your people has seen it since the Morning War. I wanted to correct that. It's only one jump from our current route so I couldn't pass the opportunity to go there. I wish we could also go to the surface, but that's too dangerous. We can only make an orbit or two before we need to leave again due to the Geth presence in the system."

"Wh- … How did you even manage to convince Navigator Pressley to do that? He surely wouldn't like doing something as risky as this."

"He did indeed complain a bit at first," he replied, "but eventually his curiosity took over. The Quarians aren't the only ones who haven't seen Rannoch in centuries. In fact, no human has ever seen it. That's also the reason why I don't think the rest of the crew will protest against our little detour. I bet they'll all be watching out of their cabin windows when we're there."

Her head turned towards the door after hearing his remark, expecting the small room to be filled with other crewmembers very soon. Shepard, who had noticed her concern, immediately reassured her:

"Don't worry, a large part the crew doesn't know where we're heading yet. And I also made a couple of precautions to prevent anyone from disturbing you here. I know that you wouldn't like that."

She only nodded and silently muttered "Thank you," as an answer. Shepard went to sit at the small bench at the side of the room to wait for the final minutes of FTL travel to be over. Tali remained standing and looked down at her intertwining fingers, still trying to process the information in a visibly nervous way. She remained like that for a few minutes until the blue glow from the window dimmed again. They were there.

Shepard slowly stood up and turned towards the window. "Rannoch should be visible now," he said, trying to get her out of her trance-like state.

He wasn't mistaken. A small orb became visible in front of the window, slowly enlarging as the ship decreased its orbital height. Tali walked towards the window and gently placed both her hands and her visor against it while making a small gaping sound, marveled by the sight before her. She saw her homeworld through the window, with its large arid continents surrounded by blue oceans. Even some of the mountain ranges she had heard about were visible from space. It was both a stunning and a peaceful sight.

After keeping her watch like that for a couple of minutes, Shepard placed a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know what the future will bring for the Quarians. But if you'll reclaim your homeworld one day, I believe that you'll help making it happen. And until then, you'll always have a home on my ship."

"After you gave me that data yesterday," she replied after a brief moment of silence, with her hands and head still leaning against the window, "I never thought I could receive a better gift." She turned around and hugged him. "But this… thank you… for everything. I couldn't ask for a better captain."

A bit surprised, he returned the gesture. "And I couldn't ask for a better crewmember and friend."

"You've been a good friend as well, Shepard. No one outside the flotilla has treated me like an equal. But you did, and now you gave me something I can't repay for the second time."

They both let go of the hug.

"It was my pleasure, and you don't have to do anything for it. Like I said earlier, I never wanted anything more than your help on the mission."

"Thank you."

Shepard couldn't see the smile that was formed on the young Quarian's face, while she was looking at the planet again. He did the same.

"I still regret that we can't go down, though. It looks like a beautiful planet."

"It is," she replied.

They both remained silent while looking at the planet in front of them, until it was time to leave the planet's orbit. Tali knew that this was a day she would never forget.

* * *

**Three and a half year later**

Tali smiled while kneeling on the planet's surface, tapping some buttons on her omni-tool which controlled a function she thought she'd never use. She was remembering the first time she saw Rannoch. A lot of things were different back then, things happened that she never thought would happen. There was a new Normandy, Shepard came back from the dead and she was an admiral. But more importantly, she and Shepard were in love and she was claiming the land where they would build their home after the war. She never anticipated that when she was dreaming about it the night after seeing Rannoch from the observation bay, still on her pilgrimage.

The omni-tool notified her that it was done, the land would be theirs. Today was yet another step towards the future. A future in which she and her captain would have a peaceful living on her homeworld. Shepard had kept his promise, she always had a home on his ship. But he would also fulfill her father's promise. The promise of a house on the homeworld, the world she was standing on right now. The place that the Quarians could once again call home.

* * *

_**Author's note: **__Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to write a review or send me a PM with any remarks, suggestions, or tips that you have._

_Cover image photoshopped by myself using a background from WallpapersWa (author unknown), a picture of Rannoch by Temporaryeditor78 of the Mass Effect Wikia and a picture of Tali from Tullis of the Mass Effect Wikia._


End file.
